Bell Atlantic Mobile, Motorola, and Phone.com Collaborate to Deliver WAP-Based Over-the-Air Provisioning for CDMA Handsets

Strategic Insights -

Bell Atlantic Mobile, Motorola, and Phone.com have joined forces to develop a collaborative effort that combines Internet and telephony open standards to create a system for delivering provisioning information and electronic customer care to Bell Atlantic Mobile subscribers via CDMA phones. This effort leverages the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and the TCP/IP standard to provide a flexible and rapidly adjustable provisioning system that can handle the increasing complexity of user profiles as mobile phones gain more functionality.

Key Takeaways:

  • The collaboration aims to deliver WAP-based over-the-air provisioning capabilities for CDMA handsets, combining Internet and telephony open standards to provide a system for delivering provisioning information and electronic customer care.
  • Motorola will provide the initial CDMA phones used in this effort, launching with Phone.com's version 3.1 browser and migrating towards full WAP compliance in 2000.
  • The results of the collaboration will be submitted to the CDMA Development Group's (CDG) Over The Air Handset Management Subgroup for stage II standardization.
  • Bell Atlantic Mobile licensed an enhanced version of the Phone.com UP.Link Server Suite, which enables the company to dynamically manage its costs by steering customers to the best available wireless carriers' networks outside its service territory.
  • The UP.Link system will also provide Bell Atlantic Mobile with the opportunity to deliver electronic customer care, including access to customer accounts and the ability to check bills and manage account features directly from the mobile phone interface.
  • The collaboration is committed to using open standards like WAP to achieve a flexible provisioning system that can rapidly adjust to changing technology requirements.
  • The provisioning system will be open and available to all CDMA carriers, handset manufacturers, and software suppliers.
  • Richard Lynch, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Bell Atlantic Mobile, emphasized the company's vision to provide customers with instant activation, updated software, access to Email and the Internet, and e-care services in a completely automated and personalized manner.
  • Janiece Webb, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola's Personal Networks Group, stated that Motorola is committed to providing WAP compliant browser and server capabilities to the industry and sees this solution as an important first step towards that goal.
  • Alain Rossmann, chairman and chief executive officer of Phone.com, noted that his company's products leverage WAP technology leadership to provide carriers with secure, powerful, and extensible over-the-air provisioning capabilities, with the expectation that revenue from this activity will impact the company in FY2001.

Statistics:

  • 120,000 square miles of the East are covered by Bell Atlantic Mobile's wireless network.
  • The company has 6.4 million customers and 8,000 employees from Maine to Georgia and, through a separate subsidiary, in the Southwest.
  • Sales in 1998 for Motorola were $29.4 billion.
  • Phone.com has regional offices in London and Tokyo.

Sources:

  • Bell Atlantic Mobile
  • Motorola
  • Phone.com, Inc. (formerly Unwired Planet, Inc.)
  • www.bam.com
  • www.bellatlantic.com/worldwide
  • http://www.phone.com
  • Sales in 1998 for Motorola were $29.4 billion ( Motorola)